Saturday 25 December 2010

Azar Lawrence



Azar Lawrence : Mystic Journey
Furthermore 2010

Many thanks for Simon (Never Enough Rhodes fame) for highlighting this heavenly album. It's for sale all over the www. but there's one track i've played over and over and over, Journey's End. Every track is all killer as Bacoso might say.

Invest ...

Sunday 19 December 2010

Elvin Jones Live : 1971



Elvin Jones Live : 1971.
John Coltrane Memorial Concert.

Pm Records, PMR-004.

Elvin Jones ; Drums
Frank Foster ; Tenor and Soprano
Chick Corea ; Piano
Gene Perla ; Bass
Joe Farrell ; Tenor and Flute

The line-up says it all really. Another killer album from the PM vaults, released in 1975. Here's the track Shinjitu, written by Keiko Jones. 22 minutes of pure power jazz.

Saturday 11 December 2010

Chuck Flores






Chuck Flores : Drum Flower.
Concord CJ-49, Recorded in Hollywood, 1977.

Chuck Flores : Drums
Bobby Shew : Trumpet
Bob Hardaway : Tenor and Soprano
Dick Johnston : Keyboards
Bob Magnusson : Bass

Here's a couple of choice tracks from this rather tasty lp. End of a love affair begins with a hard as nails drum break followed by the title track, drum flower.

Enjoy

Thursday 2 December 2010

Doug Riley



Doug Riley : Dreams.
PMR-007, 1976.

Doug Riley; Accoustic and electric pianos.
Michael Stuart; Tenor and soprano saxophones.
Don Thompson; Accoustic bass.
Claude Ranger; Drums.

Yet another beautiful album from the PM vaults :-

"Riley was born in Toronto April 12, 1945 and started studying classical piano at age 3. By 1958, he came under the influence of Hungarian classical pianist Paul de Marky, who had been Oscar Paterson's teacher. Studies saw Riley at the University of Toronto where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music. He has written 3 ballets for the National Ballet of Canada, arranged an album for Ray Charles, scored 6 feature fi Ims, and played piano and arranged for Dianne Brooks, Gordon Lightfoot, Moe Koffman, Sonny Greenwich and Dr. Music. Musically, Riley is moody, poetic, humourous, multi-colored, religious, defiant and most of all rich. He is a thorough investigator of the musical language whether in a romantic or Post-Coltrane bag."

Of the young Canadians presented by Perla, none is more impressive than keyboardist Doug Riley.

His improvisations are emotionally moving, structurally complex and technically sophisticated. Riley’s format for the group balances taut ensembles and open-ended improvisations.

In sum, the success of their voyage through the perilous waters of extended spontaneous composition is one more indication of the depth of their musicianship.
Chuck Berg, Down Beat